"This is unequivocal,'' he told the panel of the malign effects of climate change. "It's happening.''

On Wednesday, after Hurricane Sandy tore the Connecticut coastline apart, Kirshen said the storm may finally wake people up to what global warming will bring.

"We have to pay attention,'' he said.

Scientists experts agree that one storm doesn't prove anything. And, in many ways, Sandy was a freakish event, a confluence of circumstances that rarely come together.

But that was said about the October nor'easter in 2011, too. It's also interesting to note that the last three storms the state has endured --Tropical Storm Irene, the nor'easter and Sandy -- are the three worst storms in the state's history as far as power outages go.

Bob Keefe, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., said it's also important to take into account the other weather events that occurred in 2012 -- record heat waves in the Midwest, a vast drought, huge wildfires.

What's happening is not that the world is just getting warmer. It's getting wilder, he said.

And the ocean level is rising. A study released in 2012 by the U.S. Geological Survey found that the sea level is rising worldwide. From North Carolina to Boston, it's rising even faster, because of changes in ocean currents.

Kirshen said that if climate change goes unchecked, that rise could be as much as six feet by 2050.

"Think of the storm we just had,'' he said Wednesday. "Add six feet to it.''

Kirshen said there's also a socio-economic element to the problem -- people like living near the ocean. That means when big storms come, more people will be in danger.

Keefe said there are obvious things humans can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, factories and cars, and switching to cleaner alternative energy sources.

But even if people and governments take these steps, the best we can hope for is a reduction in the problems created by climate change, Kirshen said. Instead of a six-foot rise in sea levels by 2050, we may only have to face a three-foot rise, he said.

People may have to start thinking of adapting to the realities of climate change, he noted. That may mean building dikes to protect major cities like New York and Boston and building houses that can withstand floods and tidal surges.

And it may mean creating much better evacuation plans for every state along the Eastern seaboard.

"What we need now is political will,'' Kirshen said. "That can be harder to find.''